McGwire for the Hall of Fame

I won’t spend too many "column inches" on this subject other than to say that the BBWAA flat-out blew it by not voting Mark McGwire into the Hall of Fame. Worse than this failure itself is the series of lame arguments being trotted out against his election by a bunch of self-serving, self-righteous, self-important hypocrites that overpopulate the BBWAA. Kudos, props, and other forms of praise, go to the 23.5% of the voting populace who did the intelligent thing and voted for McGwire based on the facts AND historical precedent.

Here’s how one of them, Stephen Blunt of the (Toronto) Globe and Mail, addressed it. Good stuff, and thanks to Avi in Montreal for the link.

Meanwhile, while Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus doesn’t have a vote — and that fact, in and of itself, severely cuts away at the credibility of the BBWAA voting — he (once again) nailed the topic. The article on BPro.com is password-protected, so for the benefit of those who aren’t subscribers (and you really all should be), the relevant portion of his HoF commentary is below. Enjoy!

–CS

<snip>

"The other automatic is Tony Gwynn, who fits the classic mold of a high-average hitter who didn’t contribute as much in other areas, leading him to be a bit overrated during his career. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t belong in the Hall—he absolutely does—just that he’s not really an inner-circle guy. Gwynn had a five-year stretch in the middle of his career in which he slugged .415, .424, .415, .432 and .415. You won’t find many corner outfielders in the Hall of Fame who did that in any era. On the other hand, his career WARP of 124.3 is almost a dead match for a borderline Hall of Famer like…well, Alan Trammell.

I make this point about Gwynn not to denigrate him or his candidacy. I don’t know him personally, but what I do know about him aside from his stat line I like a lot. He was an analytical player, one of the first to use video to improve his game. He’s impressed me as a broadcaster, although his path there may be curtailed by the lack of a velvet throat. The idea of “loyalty” is an overwrought one, but there is something…attractive…about a player who spends 20 years in one uniform. Well, six or seven uniforms—this was the Padres, after all—but all for one team.

No, I make the point about Gwynn to cut off one line of attack against the fifth name on my ballot. There’s been some revisionist analysis of Mark McGwire that argues he was a one-dimensional player, a home-run hitter with little else in the way of skills. Now, a year ago, the BBWAA elected Sutter, the most one-dimensional player to ever be so honored. Sutter’s case rested on two poles—he succeeded in a highly-limited role and he specialized in one particular pitch. The argument that a player is “too one-dimensional” to be elected rings a bit hollow the year after that.

To use that argument against McGwire—who drew 1300 walks and had a career .394 OBP—is laughable on its face. But to make a “one-dimensional” argument against McGwire while at the same time allowing Gwynn to pass through is just comic. Gwynn was a singles hitter, a batting-average specialist who was so known for slapping singles that the Padres drew a “56” on the infield in the last days of his career to represent Gwynn’s favorite hole. Gwynn wasn’t one-dimensional throughout his career, but you can point to swaths of it, such as 1990 through 1992, when his batting average was his entire value.

McGwire isn’t the most one-dimensional player who’s a deserving candidate on this ballot, and pasting that label on him while letting Gwynn pass is either ignorant or biased.

Of course, that’s not really the issue with McGwire. McGwire has become the scapegoat for the media-anointed “Steroid Era,” that period from 1993 through 2003 when offense reigned supreme and there was no enforcement of the game’s policy against the use of performance-enhancing substances. Despite mounting evidence that the higher-offense/rampant-steroid-use connection is a fragile one, and the presence of many other factors driving power and run scoring up during that period, this notion that the statistics of that timeframe are to be discounted and the players suspect has been established as common knowledge. McGwire, the highest-profile player of that era, the guy who hit 70 homers, who hugged his kid on the field and won the approval of Roger Maris’ family and millions more…he’s the one to blame.

Why? The case against McGwire is based loosely on three elements. One is his admitted use of androstenedione during the 1998 season. Andro, a steroid precursor, was not banned by baseball at the time. After the initial controversy, this was rarely brought up in conversations about McGwire, and there’s no way his use of a legal substance, one he subsequently stopped using and recommended against using, would be enough to keep him out of the Hall.

Jose Canseco’s book, Juiced, did McGwire no favors, with its claims that McGwire used steroids early in his career. As I’ve written in the past, though, the idea that Jose Canseco is some kind of oracle is a bit difficult to stomach. He was considered a buffoon for much of his career, and only when he wrote a story that the media wanted to hear was he suddenly granted credibility. I take few of the claims in that book, and none of the ones about other players, seriously. Others do, but I don’t think that would be enough to keep McGwire out, even for one year.

No, McGwire is going to be denied election this year for one reason, and one reason only: his appearance in front of Congress in March of 2005. He didn’t grandstand the way players such as Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling did. He didn’t admit guilt and beg forgiveness the way many people wish he had. He didn’t stand defiant of a Congressional committee less interested in public policy than in positive press for threatening people—major-league baseball players—who could cost it few votes and little money and who would be unlikely to publicly point out the cynicism and bullying rampant in the process.

In his testimony, McGwire held to a point—“I’m not here to talk about the past”—that was actually in keeping with the theoretical spirit of the hearings. After all, if advancing public policy was the desired effect, if preventing PED use among the youth of America was the goal, the actions of a retired player during his career would have little bearing on the matter. McGwire offered his name and his image to campaigns that would further the goals of education and prevention. He also showed a humanity and a vulnerability that had no place in an arena so vicious.

He didn’t feed the beast. McGwire refused to participate in the dog-and-pony show by parroting the acceptable lines or by making himself a cautionary tale. He made perhaps the most accurate statement of the day: "Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem."

Since that day, McGwire has been held in contempt by the baseball media. The numbers we’re seeing today—an ESPN poll indicates that he will receive approximately 25 percent of the vote in this year’s balloting—are the direct result of that day in Congress. The voters have decided, based on the flimsiest of evidence, that McGwire not only took steroids, but that those steroids were responsible for his achievements, and that the connection between the two voids his claim to greatness.

Will Carroll has pointed this out, but it’s worth bringing up again: how can McGwire be so vilified for steroid use that has never come close to being proven, while Shawne Merriman is perhaps the most celebrated defensive player in the NFL during the same season in which he tested positive for steroids? The hypocrisy in the coverage of steroids in sports has never been so evident as it is today, the gulf between the media’s handling of MLB and the NFL wide enough to drive the truth through.

I would vote for McGwire for the Hall of Fame, because his accomplishments, his performance, warrant his induction. Whatever questions there may be about how he achieved what he did on the field are simply not answered well enough to void his claim to a spot in Cooperstown. But for the afternoon of March 17, 2005, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion, and I’m just not willing to give a grandstanding Congressional committee that much sway over my thinking.

The steroids-in-sports story is an embarrassment to the American sports media. The shaming of Mark McGwire is just another point of evidence that this is really about creating a story, rather than covering it."

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I think the Steroid Era should ultimately be viewed in the larger context of baseball history, just as we categorize the Dead Ball Era or the years when the likes of Bob Gibson were pitching off an elevated mound. It’s unfair to blackball McGwire, especially when MLB ostensibly knew it and celebrated dinger after dinger as baseball fought its way back into the public eye after the strike. When the steroids McGwire took served the game everyone turned a blind eye, but when the hallowed Hall of Fame comes nosing around it suddenly stinks. I loved Sheenan’s point about McGwire’s humanity and vulnerability, something we’ve forgotten a bit in the shadow of Barry Bonds.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the long run, because McGwire’s fate will likely determine the fates of the likes of Rafael Palmiero. Palmiero seems complicated because of the 3000 hits, which is as solid a HOF benchmark as there is, right? The talking heads all claim there’s no way Palmiero gets in after his disgraceful exit from the game, but don’t his stats dictate otherwise? Roids or not, 3000 hits is a major achievement in my book, even if Raffy wasn’t exactly the dominant player of his generation, had a **** moustache and has forever tied his legacy to Viagra, giving us an image we really didn’t need.

For that matter, why isn’t Goose Gossage in? Who would you rather have closing for your team in their prime, Sutter or Gossage? It’s a no-brainer. He’s also a definite all-star on the All-Moustache Team, which must be recognized in Cooperstown alongside Eckersley, Rollie Fingers and the biker from the Village Paople.

to me, any writer that uses his or her vote to “take a stand” on an issue (be it steroids, or being elected in your first year etc.) is abusing their right to vote and should not be allowed that oppurtunity again. the writers should be voting on the performance of the player, not on whether they felt cheated by mcgwire when he left baseball looking like the incredible hulk, and showed up three days later in front of congress looking like woody allen.

On to happier things, It’s only fitting I use MLB Radio’s Blog to announce that http://www.MLBRadioFans.com has tested positive for the clear and the cream! The site is Large and in Charge,and I think you’ll agree it’s bigger and better than ever!

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